Rest In Peace astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon and the last member of the Apollo 14 mission. He was oddly credulous for a man of science, confusing the public with his proclamations that alien visitors interceded in the arms race, the Roswell incident was not a lot of tin foil and sticks but a downed saucer, and the like, on which I commented in a previous blog.
But we remember him this weekend for the uncommon bravery involved in his work as an aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Without sound data and dedicated skepticism (not cynicism), we are likely to believe any old thing. But without a passion for trying on new and even radical ideas, what we know will be surely chained by expectation.
Flaws notwithstanding, here was an explorer's mind.
